


These Twain

by Sheffield



Series: Dark!Gregor [12]
Category: Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-04
Updated: 2013-10-04
Packaged: 2017-12-28 10:25:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/990938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sheffield/pseuds/Sheffield
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>We meet in Armsman’s Court, as we have done only five times before since the Time of Isolation, to deal with two of our own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	These Twain

Funnily enough, there actually aren’t all that many dark alleys in Vorbar Sultana these days. The Caravanserai is quite chic, and the university district has been cleaned up enormously since Vordarian’s day, and even the spaceport district is relatively free of random muggings.

But there are... places. Don’t get me wrong; if you’re lucky, and not too drunk, you can usually get by most places. There’s that rat run of alleys between the back of the big bar by the bridge - the one that the students use - and that odd little hostel near the spaceport. There are patrols, though, and street guards. No-one’s saying the improbable virgin with her bag of gold could walk through at midnight unscathed, but if you have a reasonable turn of speed and your wits about you, well, you ought to be all right.

If you’re an Armsman, well, you damned well ought to be all right, because isn’t making sure your principal is all right pretty much the job description? And if you’re a Vorbarra armsman, you’re one of the Emperor’s right hand men, the best of the best...

Ah, but what if the job description has been... slightly expanded... since the Emperor got to stretching his wings? Baskin and Laskaris were late recruits; not the men Illyan or even Negri had trained up, the ones that had surrounded the Boy Emperor when he WAS a boy. These were the new men, the ones with... extra duties, lately. Extra duties they didn’t talk about, not with the other armsmen - fossils, for the most part, with fancy ideas of what was and wasn’t right. Wasn’t the Emperor right though, because he was the Emperor, wasn’t he? So that was that. And if the lad wanted to have a little fun, well, he was the Emperor, and if he said jump then you jumped, and if he said he wasn’t happy with his doctor, well, you found him one who’d keep quiet and do what he was told.

So when three of them - Baskin, Laskaris, and one of the fossils, Gleb - walked the streets of Vorbar Sultana by night, they walked tall, and if they wanted to take the short cut through the labyrinth, well, who was to stop them?

“Wait,” Gleb said of a sudden, opening his fly and watering the wall.  
“Catch up,” Baskin sneered, “or shall we look for someone to hold it for you? I’m sure there’s a nice girl around here somewhere.”  
Laskaris had, perhaps, drunk a little more, or at least Gleb managed to pretend not to hear what Laskaris mumbled; something about Gleb perhaps preferring a nice boy...

Gleb peed like a horse, and then stepped back, doing up his fly, and found he was alone. Baskin and Laskaris had turned left, into the alley behind Makar’s. Satisfied, he brushed his hands together, once, twice, three times, as if washing his hands, and then melted back the way he had come, a ghost amongst the ghosts moving forwards.

***

Night shift in Vorbarr Sultana wasn’t all about the drunks and the lost tourists trying to climb over the gates into the Emperor’s garden.  
“Evans?”  
“I... something came up and then went off the screen straight away. I think.”  
“You think? You don’t ‘think’ lad, you observe. And then you report! Did you see anything or didn’t you?”  
Evans looked at his screen. There were eight men sitting at similar stations, watching the comconsole traffic, the hidden and not so hidden street and traffic level cameras, the public report screens, the ImpSec and other routine and non-routine traffic. He was sure there had been something... “  
He squared his shoulders and sat up a little straighter.   
“Sir. I saw a blip, sir.”  
“A blip? Well what was it?”   
“I believe... It looked as if someone set off their panic button...”  
“Oh?”  
The Watch Commander looked at his chrono and then relaxed slightly. He looked past Evans at the men either side of him.   
“I never heard a thing,” the Watch captain said. “Pestov? Karpos?”  
“No sir.” “Nothing here, sir.”  
Evans looked unhappy but stood his ground. “Well, I did. It was a panic button, right enough. We should trace...”  
“Evans. Walk with me,” the Watch Commander said. It was exactly one am, and by one fifteen Evans would understand that he hadn’t seen anything either. He was a good lad: standing up to peer pressure was a good sign, to be encouraged.

But not tonight.

***

“Armsmen, you stand accused of bringing the name of Armsman into disrepute.”

Baskin and Laskaris, their wrists bound behind their backs, blinked in the neon light as the hoods were taken off their heads.

Facing them was a semicircle of uniformed armsmen, forty-four in all, one each from over two thirds of the Districts of Barrayar.

“We meet in Armsman’s Court, as we have done only five times before since the Time of Isolation, to deal with two of our own. Gentlemen, you are accused of leading your Count, our Emperor, astray. By obeying him in illegal orders you have encouraged him to believe he can give illegal orders. By covering up illegal actions by your principal you have encouraged him to believe he can take illegal actions. By facilitating his commission of illegal actions you have encouraged him to commit illegal actions. How say you?”

“He’s the Emperor! His word is law! If he gives us an order in the Emperor’s Voice, how is it illegal to obey?”

“You make a good argument... if this were a court of law. But this is the Armsmen’s Court, and you know full well that a simple glance can be enough to redirect a principal’s attention, that the role of an armsman is to guide, as well as guard, our principals. The charge is that you have not sought to guide your Count and Emperor in the commission of illegal acts but have encouraged and supported him in them. How say you?”

“It’s a lie! Who says we encouraged him?”

But at that point the witnesses stepped forward... Gleb, Kevi, Constant, Clement... eight of the Vorbarra armsmen, all the off duty roster except for the accused.

***  
“Good morning, General Allegre. Did you mean to wake the Emperor?” “Yes please: sorry, but he’ll want to hear this at once.”

Guy Allegre hadn’t been head of ImpSec for long and this was the first time he’d had to exercise the privilege of being put through to the Emperor at any time, day or night. The comconsole screen cleared and the Emperor’s face appeared, looking older for the slight trace of stubble showing on his chin and the frown lines on his forehead. Allegre waited while the screen showed the armsman handing the Emperor a cup of coffee. The Emperor drank, inhaled the steam for a moment, and then said, resigned, “Well, Allegre? What is it?”

“Sire, I regret to inform you that two of your armsmen have been found in the labyrinth; specifically, in the alleyway behind Makar’s.”  
“Found? What do you mean? And why are you waking me up at... three am to tell me about drunken armsmen?”  
“I’m sorry if I misled you sire, but they were not drunk when we found them. They are both dead.”  
“Dead? How?”  
“Nerve disruptor fire.”  
“Nerve disruptors...?”  
“Execution style.”  
“Two of my armsmen? Executed? Who would presume... Allegre, bring me a full report in the morning. I’m going back to bed.”

He didn’t, Allegre noticed carefully, ask which two armsmen.


End file.
